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As gin plant throughput has increased, the
number of workers required has remained constant
or decreased slightly. Current labor productivity is
higher compared to that of 50 yr ago. The average
man-hours required per unit processed has declined
significantly, to as little as 25% to 15% of that required in 1962, depending on region (Table 1).
Table 1. Average labor required to process a bale of cotton
in 1962 and 2010.
1962z (manh bale-1)
Region
Beltwidex
Southeast
0.53
Mid-South
1.83
0.39
Southwest
2.78
0.42
West
1.65
0.42
z From
176
(1)
177
overflow separator and vacuum dropper, and
any independently driven vacuum droppers
associated with seed cotton cleaners).
8. Lint conveying (battery condenser and lint
cleaner fans only).
9. Seed conveying (augers, belts, seed plug, and
positive-displacement blower).
10. Trash conveying (included trash, hulls, and
mote conveying, and mote cleaner and mote
press).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Seventeen high-capacity gins in three producing areas were surveyed by Wilmot and Watson
(1966); six in the Mississippi Delta (1962), and 11
in the Texas High Plains and the San Joaquin Valley
(completed in 1964). These study areas were not replicated exactly, but monitoring data were collected in
areas with similar production practices: Mississippi
and North Carolina (South and Southeast); Lubbock,
Texas (Southwest); and New Mexico and West Texas
(West). Energy audits were performed in Arkansas,
Missouri, and Mississippi (South and Southeast);
Texas (Southwest); and California and New Mexico
(West). Valid energy and/or connected power data
were available from 22 gins from 2009 through 2011.
These data are presented by region and, in the case
of saw gins, for the U.S. Data are tabulated first by
energy consumption per bale (Table 2), then by total
connected power (Tables 3a and 3b).
Energy Consumption. Wilmot and Watson
(1966) wrote, Opinions differ among ginning engineers as to the proper categorization of certain fans.
They added that dryer push-pull fans are more a part
of processing than materials handling. Machinery
would be stacked to allow for gravity flow throughout
the seed cotton system if drying was never necessary.
Drying seed cotton adds value because it increases
the effectiveness of seed cotton cleaning (Anthony
and Mayfield, 1994). To be consistent with the earlier
study for comparison purposes, the same classification
rules were followed. If an airstream could be heated,
all fans associated with it were placed in the seed
cotton drying category whether or not the burner was
on that moment or that season. Electrical energy consumption associated with moving seed cotton through
drying systems fell by half or more per processed bale
over the past half century. The trend has been to build
driers with more spacing between shelves and fewer
shelves, reducing total pressure drop.
178
Table 2. Energy consumption (kWh bale-1) by gin function; by regions and total; 1960s and 2010s.
Westz
(kWh bale-1)
1960s
Southwestz
Present
1960s
Present
1960s
Present
Present
Present
14.56
7.22
15.91
4.94
12.03
5.54
5.53
10.28
2.52
3.38
4.79
3.01
2.69
2.36
2.60
4.17
3) Ginning
9.11
5.94
8.16
6.79
9.08
6.52
6.38
8.40
4) Lint Cleaning
4.68
2.79
4.58
2.22
4.26
2.20
2.21
2.02
5) Bale Press
1.34
4.26
1.41
3.68
1.56
4.16
3.98
6.59
Value Added
32.21
23.60
34.85
21.46
29.62
20.84
20.98
31.47
5.47
3.54
8.23
0.90
5.88
1.89
1.56
3.56
2.00
1.70
1.62
1.89
1.45
1.83
1.79
5.50
8) Lint Conveying
4.98
5.33
4.34
4.58
4.08
4.33
4.65
7.38
9) Seed Conveying
0.73
1.25
0.63
0.65
1.31
1.44
1.11
1.78
7.50
6.01
6.28
3.59
5.16
4.62
4.43
5.92
Materials Handling
20.68
17.79
21.10
11.61
17.88
14.10
13.53
24.15
52.89
41.37
55.95
33.07
47.50
34.94
34.50
55.61
8.8
26.7
8.3
50.6
7.2
39.1
44.2
25.1
15
h-1)
Sample Sizey
z 1960s
y Seventeen
Table 3a. Connected power (kW) by gin function; by regions and total; 1960s and 2010s.
(kW)
1) Seed Cotton Drying
Westz
Southwestz
1960s
Present
1960s
Present
1960s
Present
Present
Present
190
313
210
384
122
263
337
384
66
153
107
216
61
129
176
180
3) Ginning
155
201
145
510
116
309
394
268
4) Lint Cleaning
85
128
67
182
57
115
153
80
5) Bale Press
56
165
40
397
34
256
318
206
552
960
568
1689
389
1072
1378
1117
72
104
98
91
60
107
94
112
27
89
25
145
22
102
120
164
8) Lint Conveying
57
177
48
277
34
219
259
214
9) Seed Conveying
17
40
18
51
19
66
60
57
95
210
83
287
54
204
251
166
Materials Handling
267
621
271
852
187
699
782
714
Total (kW)
819
1581
839
2541
576
1771
2160
1831
8.82
25.84
8.3
48.53
7.22
39.04
44.24
26.72
15
Sample Sizex
z 1960s
179
Table 3b. Connected power (hp) by gin function; by regions and total; 1960s and 2010s.
(hp)
Westz
1960s
Southwestz
Present
1960s
Present
1960s
Present
Present
Present
255
420
281
515
163
353
452
515
89
205
143
289
82
173
236
241
3) Ginning
208
270
194
684
155
415
529
359
4) Lint Cleaning
114
171
90
244
76
154
205
107
5) Bale Press
75
221
54
533
45
343
426
276
740
1287
762
2265
521
1438
1848
1498
96
140
131
122
80
144
126
150
36
119
34
195
29
137
161
220
8) Lint Conveying
77
238
64
371
45
294
347
287
9) Seed Conveying
23
53
24
69
25
88
80
77
127
282
111
385
73
274
336
223
Materials Handling
358
833
364
1143
251
937
1049
957
Total (hp)
1098
2120
1125
3408
772
2375
2897
2455
8.82
25.84
8.30
48.53
7.22
39.04
44.24
26.72
15
Sample Sizex
z 1960s
180
fans found in some roller gins. Lint cleaning energy consumption has decreased during the past
50 yr as fewer unit lint-cleaner stages are used.
Where once two or three stages of lint cleaning
were common practice, only one or two were
used in the audited and monitored gins. This is
in response to research that has shown that gains
in leaf grade from additional lint cleaning are
offset by losses in fiber length and bale weight
(turnout). A second stage of lint cleaning might
decrease waste during spinning, but it does so at
the cost of additional card web neps and lower
yarn strength. For these reasons a second stage
of lint cleaning is reserved for late-season, more
trashy or Light Spotted cottons in both spindle
and stripper-harvested regions (Anthony and
Mayfield, 1994).
The only processing or value added category
that has seen an increase in energy consumption
per bale was packaging. The biggest change came
about in the 1970s as gin universal-density bale
presses replaced modified flat-bale presses. The
new gin universal-density bale presses formed a
finished bale that was about twice the density, 448
kg m-3 (28 lb ft-1), compared to bales formed by
modified flat-bale presses. This increased press
energy consumption by a factor of eight (Anthony
et al., 1980).
Though forming gin universal-density bales
required a significant capital investment and more
operating energy, the new bales were economical
because they did not require recompressing at the
warehouse to become compress universal-density
bales. Gin universal-density bales saved, at that
time, $3.00 in compression fees and $1.00 in bagging and ties (Shaw and Ghetti, 1977). Eliminating
a second stage of pressing by shifting the work
done at the compress to the cotton gin has possibly
reduced total energy consumption by the industry. Displacing warehouse-based steam-powered
pressing with gin-based electric/hydraulic pressing likely has greatly reduced the carbon footprint
of this operation. Unfortunately, energy consumption of compress operations were not published, so
quantification was difficult. The other benefit of
forming higher density bales at the gin occurred
at the transport level. Trucks transporting cotton
bales from the gin to the warehouse now need
make fewer trips. This has likely reduced motor
fuel consumption and air pollution, though again,
published data are lacking.
181
culated for value added, materials handling, and total,
by region, for the two time periods. Motor utilization
has improved, from about 60% in the 1960s to about
70% at present. Motor utilization usually is less than
100% because of the margin of safety required in
systems with fluctuating loads (to avoid overloading
components when a surge of excess material enters
the process stream). However, trimming that margin
helps gins reduce capital and operating costs, and
might slightly improve the facilitys power factor.
Roller Gins. Roller gins were not included in the
1962 through 1964 studies. Roller gins were typically
used only on Pima cotton, a small percentage of the U.S.
crop. Today better quality upland cottons are increasingly being processed with high-speed roller gins (Armijo
and Gillum, 2010). Roller gin statistics are presented
here for comparison with saw gins. The connected
power tends to be a bit less, but energy consumption per
bale processed is more. This might partly be due to the
lower processing rate and greater age of the roller gins
sampled in this study. Also, roller gins typically have
more gin stands, between 12 and 32, compared to saw
gins, which typically have two to six. Other differences
are not great enough to explain the disparity.
Study Limitations. Regional and nationwide
averages from 2009 through 2011 were weighted by
processing rate, not by total bales processed. This
skews the data to represent larger gins more heavily,
even if they did not process a large number of bales
in the year studied. Gins were selected for audits
and monitoring based on logistics considerations
(proximity to transportation or other facilities being
audited), not just based on how well they represented
the typical gin of a particular size or age. And as
mentioned above, audits are useful for apportioning
energy consumption between functions, but they underestimate total energy consumption per bale because
the audit is conducted while the gin is running; energy
that is used during cleaning and repairs is excluded.
West
1960sz
0.544
Materials Handling
Present
1960sz
0.632
0.695
Total
Present
1960sz
Present
0.737
0.593
0.673
Southwest
0.528
0.606
0.653
0.670
0.568
0.628
0.596
0.758
0.715
0.800
0.635
0.774
0.673
0.765
0.707
0.753
0.904
0.812
z 1960s
182
For these reasons the present study was compared to the results of a 2010 cost-of-ginning survey
(Table 5). This provided a means of comparing
these results to results from a larger sample of U.S.
gins from the same time period. The survey energy
consumption data are for the entire season and include down time for clean-up and in-season repairs
(something the 1960s audits did not include). Some
gins had seed house drying fans on the same power
meter as the gin, so survey results in a few cases
show more than just ginning energy consumption.
Because the 1960s data did not include everything,
and the survey data in some cases included more than
just ginning, this comparison might be considered
conservative.
Anonymous survey data provided by the USDA
Office of Cotton Technology Transfer were parsed
for missing values and seasonal average energy consumption per bale for each gin was weighted based on
total bales ginned by that facility. Survey data, which
included down time and in some cases seed drying,
indicated about 18% more energy per bale compared
to energy audits and monitoring data. Comparing
survey results to audit data from the 1960s, the cotton
ginning industry is using 81% the energy it once did,
while processing at 3.4 times the rate.
CONCLUSION
The U.S. cotton ginning industry has experienced
many changes over the past half century. Bale compression density has approximately doubled, displacing
work from the warehouse compress to the gin. Harvest
methods have changed, shifting labor from the field
to the gin and, in the case of stripper-harvested cotton,
moving some energy consumption to the field. Environmental regulations governing dust emissions have
resulted in increased materials-handling energy requirements as well as capital expense (e.g., more stringent
regulations required adding cyclones to lint cleaner
exhausts, so vane-axial fans with small motors had to
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West
2010 Surveyz
kWh/bale
bales/hour
Sample Size
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Southwest
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2010 Surveyz
Present Study
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